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Future

Almost all adults in the countryside travel by car. Sometimes even completely. Typical for so many sparsely populated rural areas in Germany: driver-based public transport is on the verge of collapse - hardly any connections, complicated fare structures. Everyone drives a car. Railway lines lie idle. Many people are moving away. Rural areas are running out of people.

Projects like MONOCAB bring us into the great future of the countryside. Because it's not just about mobility: it's about our coexistence, about the provision of basic needs in the countryside and (perceived) equal living conditions, about fair mobility - ultimately about an operating system for a democratic society.

This does not require a revolution of „Away with the old, make way for the new!“ - but simply an evolutionary recombination of the existing with the new: with the credo „Use what's there“, MONOCAB is taking precisely this approach: it combines the existing rail infrastructure and what is still available in terms of public transport with an additional mobility option. The result is IPNV - individualised public transport.

Innovation Catalysts
Opportunity Provider
Mobility as Mindshift
2022_59_Luftbild_Hauptgebaeude_THOWL_Lemgo

The MONOCAB research project is a collaboration between the OWL University of Applied Sciences, Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences and Fraunhofer IOSB-INA. Under the overall project management of Prof. Dr Thomas Schulte, the current challenge is to prove that such rail vehicles can be realised safely, reliably and economically.

The Institute for Energy Research (iFE) at OWL University is the consortium leader of the project and works with up to six employees on an interdisciplinary basis in the fields of design, aerodynamics, control engineering, simulation, drive technology, power electronics and control software.

The active involvement of students in numerous sub-areas enables practical experience and promotes their scientific development. In addition, the inIT research institute and a teaching area of the interior design programme at OWL University are also involved in the project.

user-scenarios

The MONOCAB

The MONOCAB is a gyro-stabilised monorail: self-propelled cabins for 4-6 passengers travel in both directions on ONE track. This is because they are so compact that they can travel past each other in opposite directions - like a paternoster in constant rotation.

As good as your own car: they can be ordered like taxis for individual journeys to the village or the city. Simply by app, around the clock, 365 days a year. Customised, automated - and „on demand“, instead of what feels like an eternal wait for the rare country bus.

This bridging technology will become the flexible and individualised feeder to local public transport. Socially appropriate and urgently needed. Accepted and sustainable.

 

  • Inspiration: Monorail by Louis Brennan, 1907
  • Idea: Thorsten Försterling, Landeseisenbahn Lippe e.V.
  • Awards:
    • German Mobility Award 2018 - Open Innovation
    • RegioStars Award 2025

What only MONOCAB can do

There are many ideas for new mobility. But only MONOCAB is a project of national importance for the future of rural areas. Instead of just being a technical innovation, it has a clear social focus: more quality of life, more mobility justice.

Only the MONOCAB project uses the existing infrastructure of disused single-track railway lines in rural areas so consistently with small, lightweight and autonomous rail vehicles - in two-way traffic, on demand: like your own car on rails.

And only the MONOCAB combines the existing public transport services and the private vehicle culture in the countryside in the shortest possible time. The result is a bigger, better system: we are making local public transport more flexible and individualised. We call this principle IPNV (Individual Ppersonsnahvtransport).

 

  • Project of national importance
  • Use what is there!
  • Reactivation of unused railway infrastructure
  • Revitalise, develop, transform
  • Combining the advantages of private and public transport
  • Instead of revolution: an evolution of existing possibilities
  • Focus on social justice, intergenerational justice and inclusion
  • As good as your own car: made in NRW, tested in OWL

3 pillars of sustainability

Ökologisch

Compact, lightweight, battery-electric rail vehicles
Wirtschaftlich

Return on investment for the common good in the fulfilment of public services of general interest and for equal living conditions in urban and rural areas
Sozial

IPNV for living in the countryside without your own car: private, individual, safe

Out of competition instead of in competition

There have been and still are many attempts to replace the classic railway with a different track-based transport system. None of them have been successful so far. The MONOCAB therefore pursues a completely different goal: supplementing instead of replacing!

We want to reactivate the existing disused rail infrastructure: by using small and light rail vehicles. And quickly and efficiently! The goal: to create attractive offers that are comparable to the private car. Only then will it be accepted.

This is why MONOCAB is focussing on sustainable, combined mobility that meets the needs of the population in rural areas. On demand-orientated, networked mobility chains instead of isolated solutions. IPNV as a feeder and bridge in local public transport.

What is already travelling is networked with what will soon be travelling: from the car to the MONOCAB to the regional train station. Or by bike to the MONOCAB in the city. And so on ...

 

  • Skilled labour shortage: 87,000 bus drivers shortage by 2030!
  • Reactivation of disused railway infrastructure with light rail vehicles
  • Bridge between public transport and IPNV
  • Public transport 5.0 - Connectivity
  • Equal (mobility) living conditions and fair mobility
  • The great future in the countryside
  • Creating connections Changing awareness

Project partners

thorsten_foersterling
Your contact person

Thorsten Försterling

Spiritual father of the MONOCAB
Press spokesman
Marketing Manager

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